“Friends of Palestinian Detainees”: Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) Launches Pilot Program for Congregations
As of September 10, 2024, Israel was incarcerating over 10,100 Palestinian political prisoners, with 3,398 held in administrative detention, a benign sounding term for a perverse procedure that allows Israeli occupation forces to hold prisoners indefinitely with no charges or access to a trial. These figures from Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, document a dramatic and alarming spike over the past year, even higher now than the figures reported in this April 2024 Addameer graphic.
While predominately men, those incarcerated also include women and children, some as young as 12 years old. Israel feels no compulsion to provide evidence for the arrests and detentions of Palestinians, and doesn’t. Meanwhile, there is increasing evidence and documentation of Israel’s escalating use of torture against Palestinians detainees.
FOSNA is launching their Friends of Palestinian Detainees pilot program in an effort to humanize and personalize the reality of the Palestinians detained and subjected to Israel’s cruel and tortuous punishment. The project seeks to recruit, as participants, a dozen North American faith communities. Each congregation will be matched with a Christian Palestinian detainee and their family members. The goal through these pairings is to build relationships of friendship, support, and solidarity that will be sustained over time.
Might your congregation feel called to join this initiative and befriend a Palestinian detainee? For more details about FOSNA’s pilot program and to apply digitally, go here.
This excerpt is from the UCCPIN November 2024 E-Newsletter. To view the full newsletter, click here: UCCPIN November 2024 E-Newsletter.
